The non-profit subsidiary of the health ministry said 4,915,686 people from the low-income group were eligible for such health protection this year.
However, only 536,319 had undergone health screening to be eligible for the protection so far.
ProtectHealth Corporation senior principal assistant director Dr Nor Hasanah Mardhiah said time or travel constraints could have contributed to this low health screening.
“Some of these B40 beneficiaries, especially in urban areas, hold more than one job to support themselves. They may not have the time to do the health screening.
“Those in the rural areas also face difficulties travelling to the PeKa B40 clinics.
“We are aware of this issue, which is why we also do outreach programmes to get more of those eligible to undergo the screening,” she told reporters during a media briefing on the health scheme this evening.
ProtectHealth CEO Dr Anas Alam Faizli added that low health literacy among Malaysians and the constraints posed by the Covid-19 pandemic could also be among the factors that discouraged more from going for screening.
Health screenings, he said, had dropped drastically during the pandemic.
“In 2019, we did 200,000 screenings between April and December. We had 200,000 screenings for the whole of 2020 and 80,000 during the first 10 months of this year.”
About 4,000 facilities have been registered as health providers for the PeKa B40 scheme. Of the total, 2,554 are private doctors, 897 government health clinics, 145 government hospitals and 182 health labs.
Asked about allegations that certain private doctors had failed to refer beneficiaries to the government’s health facilities if the screening reports showed these patients needed further medical attention, Anas said he was aware of this.
“These general practitioners may not fully understand our procedures. But the number of such complaints has declined over the years.”
Besides health screening, the PeKa B40 beneficiaries are eligible to buy medical devices worth up to RM20,000, get a payment incentive of RM1,000 upon completion of cancer treatment, and transport allowance of up to RM500 in the peninsula and RM1,000 in Sabah and Sarawak.